Local US officials have confirmed that the death toll from this week’s wildfires in the state of California has climbed to 31, making it the deadliest series of blazes in the state’s history. 

Fire officials said on Thursday the tally could rise further in the eight counties which have been affected by the fires.

In Sonoma County alone, where entire neighborhoods have been destroyed, hundreds of people are still unaccounted for.

The fires have swept through California’s wine country, leaving thousands of people homeless and burning over 190,000 acres (76,000 hectares) of land.

Firefighters said gusty winds and dry conditions have hampered their efforts to contain the fires, which began on Sunday. Some 8,000 firefighters were battling 20 blazes as of Thursday.

“What this means is that our fires will continue to burn erratically,” California fire chief Ken Pimlott told a press conference. “They have the potential to shift in any direction at any time.

“We are a long way from being done with this catastrophe,” he said.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump declared a major disaster in California, releasing funding and resources to fight the catastrophe. Forest fires are common in the western United States during hot months, but few have claimed as many lives as this week’s blaze.

Source: Presstv

On Friday 13 October Mr Kofi Annan, Chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation and the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, will brief UN Member States on the Advisory Commission’s main findings and recommendations for Myanmar’s troubled western state of Rakhine.

In his capacity as Chair of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, Mr Annan presented the Commission’s report “Towards a Peaceful, Fair and Prosperous Future for the People of Rakhine” in Yangon in August 2017. The report puts forward recommendations to surmount the political, socioeconomic and humanitarian challenges that have long existed in Rakhine State and have contributed to the current crisis.

The Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, which was disbanded following the completion of its mandate in September 2017, focused on long-term solutions for improving the welfare of all people in Rakhine State. Its final report addresses many of the root causes that underlie the humanitarian crisis.

“Towards a Peaceful, Fair and Prosperous Future for the People of Rakhine” and the recommendations it contains have been endorsed by the Government of Myanmar and widely welcomed by the international community.

In his briefing to Council Members and other Member States, Mr Annan will present the main recommendations of the report and discuss their implementation in the context of the violence and displacement that has taken place since the Commission’s report was published.

Mr Annan will urge stakeholders to use the report as a roadmap to peace and development in Rakhine State.

Mr Annan will stress the need to quickly end security operations, facilitate humanitarian access to affected populations and ensure protection of civilians.

The briefing will begin at 15:00 EST. It will be held under the Arria-formula to allow for participation from all United Nations Member States and accredited non-governmental organisations.

Mr. Annan’s statement will be made public at the time of the briefing.

About the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State

At the behest of the Ministry of the Office of the State Counsellor of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and in collaboration with the Kofi Annan Foundation, the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State was established in September 2016 as a neutral and impartial body to propose concrete measures for improving the welfare of all people in Rakhine state. It was disbanded following the completion of its mandate in September 2017.

The Commission was composed of six local and three international experts and chaired by Kofi Annan. It released an interim report in March 2017 and its final report in August 2017. The reports considered and provided recommendations on humanitarian and developmental issues, access to basic services, legal questions including citizenship and the assurance of basic rights, security to all people in all communities and other issues central to building lasting peace.

Source:  Kofi Annan Foundation

US President Donald Trump has threatened to shut down NBC and other American TV networks by revoking their media licenses, claiming they broadcast “fake news” and are “bad” for the country.

“With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!” Trump said in a tweet on Wednesday.

Trump has repeatedly used the term “fake news” to cast doubt on critical media reports about his administration, often without providing any evidence to support his case that the reports are false.

NBC News has reported on tensions between Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

NBC said last week that Trump sought a dramatic increase in the US nuclear arsenal during a meeting in July with national security advisers in July.

NBC reported Tillerson made his “moron” comment after that meeting and was on the verge of resigning amid mounting policy disputes with the White House.

“Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a ‘tenfold’ increase in our US nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN!,” Trump once again tweeted against the media on Wednesday.

This is not the first time Trump has attacked NBC. Trump wrote on Twitter on October 4 that “NBC news is #FakeNews and more dishonest than even CNN. They are a disgrace to good reporting. No wonder their news ratings are way down!”

Trump’s willingness to potentially challenge the broadcast licenses of a media he disapproves, marks an escalation in Trump’s anti-media rhetoric.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does not license broadcast networks, but issues them to individual broadcast stations. The agency does not issue similar licenses for cable networks like CNN and MSNBC, or regulate internet news or other websites.

The FCC has said the First Amendment “expressly prohibits the commission from censoring broadcast matter” and that its role “in overseeing program content is very limited.”

As a candidate, Trump had pursued the same anti-media rhetoric threatening to “open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.”

At least 17 people have been killed in California due to wildfires which have so far damaged over 2,000 residences and other buildings, authorities say.

Fires have been raging in multiple counties as of Tuesday, charring more than 115,000 acres of land and forcing nearly 20,000 residents to evacuate.

The biggest fires were reported from Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino counties, where flames were sweeping through the lush, picturesque landscape. Just in Sonoma and Napa, the Tubbs and Atlas fires have burned 52,000 acres of land.

In Anaheim, fires schorched an estimated 6,000 acres and wreaked havoc on at least 24 homes and businesses.

At least 183 people have been unaccouted for since Sunday when the fires first broke out, according to one official in Sonoma County where at least 11 people died of fire-related injuries.

St. Joseph Health said nearly 170 patients have been treated for burns and smoke inhalation in Sonoma County.

High winds and dry conditions have exacerbated the situation, and according to Cal Fire, strong winds led to “extreme rates of spread and volatile burning conditions.”

Sonoma County Sgt. Spencer Crum said Tuesday, “The night before this, we had 60 mph winds, which is the reason why you have such devastation here.”

At least 3,000 residents were forced to leave the area in and around Anaheim, with officials saying that over 5,000 structures were being threatened by the flames.

“We always thought the alert system would give us time, but there was no notice, no warning,” said Maureen Grinnell, 77, who lived in the hills north of Napa. “I was watching a movie with my 19-year-old granddaughter and I smelled smoke, and I looked out the window to see flames approaching.”

Officials have been forced to evacuate even some hospitals due to flames which were engulfing certain areas. Also, residents living in surrounding counties, which were under threat, have also been ordered to flee their homes.

Source: Presstv

The United States Army’s top officer says it is likely to “increase” its train, advise and assist (TAA) missions after the death of four soldiers in Niger by developing a new unit, he describes as “similar to special forces,” that are “not special Forces.”

General Mark Milley made the comments at the Association of the army’s annual meeting in Washington on Monday, not long after four special operations commandos were ambushed to death by militants in the Western African country of Niger.

The army’s chief of staff did not mention who was responsible for the attack although he asserted that the US military does know the group.

“We are training, advising and assisting indigenous armies all over the world,” Milley stated. “And I anticipate and expect that’ll increase, not decrease, in years to come.”

Two other Green Berets were injured on the October 4 ambush near the Nigerien capital Niamey by militants said to be linked with the Daesh Takfiri group in Iraq and Syria.

“It is a dangerous mission, TAA missions around the world. It depends on where you are at,” Milley said, announcing that a new unit is being developed for such missions.

It will be made up of six “Security Force Assistance Brigades,” which will include 500 non-commissioned and senior officers with “Ranger-like standards.”

“They will look and act, in many ways, and be trained similar to Special Forces, but they are not Special Forces,” Milley asserted.

The US Africa Command “is reviewing very closely the security procedures that they are using for these teams that are there in Africa,” he added.

The US military leaders are expanding Washington’s military presence, arguing that they need to be able to act more quickly against purported enemies amid vows by President Donald Trump to defeat the Daesh terrorists.

The US and some of its regional allies are themselves implicated in support for the Takfiri terrorists.

Culled from Presstv

Ugandan rebels have attacked two military bases in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), killing two United Nations peacekeepers and injuring a dozen others.

The UN mission in Congo, known as MONUSCO, said the casualties occurred during two simultaneous attacks early on Monday, when soldiers were battling the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel group along the main road leading from North Kivu province’s Beni territory to the Uganda border.

The UN did not specify the nationality of the dead soldiers or the injured.

“This region has seen more than enough violence already,” the mission chief, Maman Sidikou, said in a statement, adding that MONUSCO would “strongly” respond to threats by armed groups.

A Congolese army spokesman in the region, Mak Hazukay, also confirmed the report and later said the bases housed Tanzanian peacekeepers who formed part of an intervention brigade with a mandate to conduct offensive operations against the rebel group.

The assault came a day after the ADF militants killed at least 30 civilians by slitting their throats and took another 19 hostages near the city of Beni.

The recent fighting is a fresh outbreak of violence for a region plagued by ethnic tensions and massacres that killed more than 800 people between 2014 and 2016.

The Allied Democratic Forces-National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF-NALU) rebel group, which was founded in Uganda in 1995 and later moved to Congo, is believed to have roughly 400 members and has been accused of committing serious human rights violations, including recruiting child soldiers and rape.

ADF-NALU and dozens of other armed groups have been active in eastern Congo since the 1996-2003 Congo wars.

The Congolese army, joined by UN troops, is on the offensive against the rebel group which is blamed for more than two decades of violence that has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.

Source: Presstv